BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
X-Factor’s fears about their government handlers were confirmed when they were tasked with hunting down a pack of mutant killers. Instead, they discovered it was actually their own missing and presumed dead member, Madrox the Multiple Man. While Forge and Val tried to get answers from their sponsors, Shard watched over the Multiple Man. Madrox had survived death by the Legacy virus through his duplicates, but he was forced to look upon his own corpse. As a post-human living hologram, Shard actually understood what he went through, and they bonded over their strange circumstances. [X-Factor (1st series) #128-129]
Forge recognized they could no longer trust the government now that Operation: Zero Tolerance’s star was in ascension. As he prepared to break X-Factor away from official status, Forge cooperated with Shard in drafting an ideal for the team based on her own knowledge of X.S.E. 
operating parameters. X-Factor even faked their deaths and orchestrated a false bio-hazard at their complex to further separate from government eyes. As Shard became focused on work again, she found herself leaving Wild Child behind. Kyle finally asked Shard directly what they were to each other, and she admitted that her complications as a photonic lifeform with no real body who was born decades in the future and was now co-strategizing an underground mutant force left no room for romance at the moment. She insisted she and Kyle were still “buds,” but it wasn’t what he (or Jamie Madrox for that matter) were really looking for. [X-Factor (1st series) #132-135]
Shard and X-Factor tried to maintain their independence from their former backers while in secret at the condemned Fall's Edge. Their intent was to operate underground and without oversight, continuing to help the mutant cause. Shard continued to grow closer to her teammates while aiding Forge in drafting their new operating parameters. X-Factor’s efforts to distance themselves from the government hadn’t come soon enough, though. Sabretooth was already a sleeper agent for the Hound program when he was forcibly added to the team, eager to be activated and tear X-Factor apart from within. Once he overcame his restraining collar, Creed butchered his way through X-Factor’s secret complex in a showing of dominance. He severely injured Mystique, Forge, and Wild Child during his rampage. In particular, Sabretooth ambushed Shard and Polaris after a workout together, slashing at Shard as she was phasing through Lorna to protect her. Sabretooth’s claws ripped at Shard’s digital flesh, causing her to depixelate again. Her body seemingly vanished, and she was lost in the chaos of Creed's escape and X-Factor's biological members getting much needed medical care. [X-Factor (1st series) #136]
X-Factor barely survived thanks to the intervention of Val Cooper and Havok’s Brotherhood, but there was no sign of Shard at first. Her essence somehow bonded with Polaris and briefly inhabited Lorna’s body as Shard regenerated her pixilated mass. As she returned to consciousness, Shard was surprised to detect 
the thoughts of her old confederates from Xavier's Underground Enforcers. The renegades from the future were still linked to her telepathically through Fixx, despite a gap of decades and Shard’s transition from organic to photonic life. Her presence inside the body of Lorna Dane acted as an anchor, allowing three of Fixx’s psychic sprites to transit space and time to arrive in the present. As Shard's photonic form emerged from within Polaris, the sprites emerged as well, carrying the spirits of the X.U.E. into the present era. The long-forgotten time travel plot was still in effect. Polaris and the rest of X-Factor were still recovering from Sabretooth’s attack and in no shape to help, leaving Shard to pursue her former teammates and uncover just what their agenda was in this time period. [X-Factor (1st series) #140-141]
Shard used the still active psychic link among the X.U.E. to trace her former associates. She discovered the X.U.E. had possessed recently deceased human bodies as hosts, allowing them to inhabit those bodies and transform them into duplicates of their originals. They sought to prevent 
Havok from interfering with the work of the Dark Beast and accidentally unleashing a modified version of the Legacy virus on Manhattan. The X.U.E. had a list of past-future catastrophes to prevent, nullifying their future but perhaps ensuring a better one for all. Havok was interested in forming a more proactive mutant team from the remnants of X-Factor and considered working with them. Shard agreed to join Havok and the X.U.E. for this new X-Factor, but she did not trust her former partners. Shard felt used by the X.U.E., who clearly never filled her in on their true plans or their scope and would not forgive quickly or easily. [X-Factor (1st series) #143-145]
[Note: Shard’s presence in the past as a spiritual anchor with a human host allowed the X.U.E. to do the same. It seems absurd that this incredibly unlikely event was key to the X.U.E.’s plans. However, there were hints that the X.U.E.’s mysterious leader was Genesis, Forge’s future self and the founder of the X.S.E. Therefore, an ontological paradox may have been at play where Genesis knew Shard would go back in time and act as an anchor because, as Forge, he remembered this situation from his own past. A displaced Shard would then help Forge shape X-Factor into what Genesis would one day make the X.S.E., completing the loop.]
Havok suggested Shard go out into the world and learn about modern humanity, so that she had a connection to what they were fighting for. While riding the subway in New York, she saw a 
teenager named Kevin being chased by other teens calling him “mutie.” Kevin jumped onto the subway tracks to escape, and only survived thanks to Shard’s intervention. As they became friends, Kevin revealed the “mutant power” the other kids hated him for was that he was simply double-jointed. Shard laughingly corrected him on what the definition of a mutant really was. When she came to see Kevin at school the next day, however, she found he had betrayed her. Kevin’s bullies knew the truth and were now willing to protect their fellow human from a nasty mutant like her. The kids began throwing rocks at Shard, and even encouraged Kevin to do it as “one of them.” Shard finally scared them all off with a bio-blast, but had learned a poignant lesson about “modern humanity.” [X-Factor (1st series) #147]
[Note: It’s worth noting that narration and characters often treated Shard as very young. In the above story, she interacted with a high school student as a peer. A truant officer spotted her outside the school and thought she was a student. Even in the future, Randall joked about how she was too young for him. If her mutant powers manifested at the typical age of thirteen, that means she became an X.S.E. officer by fourteen. It’s conceivable she was still a teenager when her physical body died.]
X-Factor was on the verge of reforming as older members like Polaris and Multiple Man returned 
to join Havok, Shard and the X.U.E. It was not to be, however. Greystone started experiencing temporal psychosis from the stress of his actions through the timeline. He tried to construct a time machine to bring him back to his own time, using a risky and unproven theory from the future. Instead, it exploded and seemingly killed him and Havok. X-Factor failed to remain together after that, with Shard and the others going their separate ways. [X-Factor (1st series) #149]